Guided Dr. Jay Erickson on this beautiful Sunday morning. Jay wanted to learn about the speckled trout near his home and then go catch some redfish in the backwaters in the coming weeks. The winds laid down for us and although we had a neap tide with very little water movement, we really stuck it to some big trout. In fact, we didn’t catch a speckled trout under 4 pounds and had a few fish a bit over 5 pounds. Fished some deeper potholes and had to trust that these fish were laying out the bottom. Caught a bunch and missed even more! Also, landed a small redfish in the same area. All fish taken on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with Marsh Works jigheads. All fish handled with great care and released healthy. Part II in the coming weeks! Stay...
Read MoreBack to Destin for Redfish U.-February 26, 2010
Guided Mr. Ted Taylor this morning in Destin, FL. Ted wanted to learn a bit about shallow water redfishing and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. We were met with cool but pretty nice conditions. We stuck redfish immediately with 4-5 nice fish off the first mudflat. Scooted over to another location with lots of mullet and bait. Lots and lots of redfish inside these schools and they were easy to catch. Poled another shallow area and grabbed a few more tailing fish and then called it a morning. All fish caught on 1/4 Johnson Gold Spoons and 5″ Gulp Jerkshads in camo. All fish released. In Destin tomorrow and Sunday morning at Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic and may hit some of those fish before...
Read More“Big” Business then Pleasure at Redfish U.-February 25, 2010
Today I had a great meeting with Jeff Cope and Jay Geeding from Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Both gentlemen are Category Managers for Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, etc.) and asked me to assist in providing customers with a better saltwater selection and improving the overall direction of the fishing department in many stores. Started the morning at the Gulf Breeze Wal-Mart and I hope I offered some creative and thoughtful ideas to improve the saltwater choices in the fishing department. I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the fishing industry but, like with fishing, there’s always much more to learn and I did. Well, this is where the productivity ended. After our meeting, we decided to jump on my boat and go stick a few redfish and trout. We weren’t too excited about the temps, wind, water clarity and bright blue skies but they insisted that I knew what I was doing and they just wanted to get out on the water. That’s exactly what we did. I honestly can’t remember the last time I(or clients) didn’t catch a single fish in ANY conditions!! The timing was classic as these guys aren’t exactly the company you want to have a below average trip with! Fished for two hours, got 3 decent bites and saw a handful of redfish but incredibly, they just wouldn’t pick up the bait. Did the earth counter-rotate today? Oh well, I know where not to go for tomorrow’s and Saturday’s...
Read MoreTough conditions but caught some fish at Redfish University-February 6, 2010
Guided Dr. Roger Orth and Dr. Wayne Adkisson this morning. Both anglers wanted to learn some shallow water redfish and trout techniques for winter and spring-time fishing. Met with very cold, strong WNW winds and very difficult water conditions due to the endless, recent rains. Concentrated on protected, shallow banks that held better water clarity. Found plenty of redfish resting in 1-3′ of water and focused on muddy blowouts to target these difficult fish. As always, a slow tap-tap retrieve and a worm rattle produced the strikes on the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo. We also stuck some quality trout in the same areas. Find the calm, less stained water and you’ll find the fish! Overall, a pretty difficult day but I believe we found the greatest concentrations of fish and most importantly, caught some very finicky wintertime redfish. All fish released except for two redfish for...
Read MoreLast Day of the Trout Adventure-January 29, 2010
Today was Day 3 of my speckled trout adventure with Greg Amos. We decided to stay local and find some more trout and then head out to the beach to look for some big redfish. Started the morning out with some decent trout but it was painfully slow after 8am. Pointed the Hewes Redfisher towards Pensacola Pass and went in search of redfish. We were met by 3-4′ rollers as the wind and tide were fighting so we turned around and went to find more trout. Stuck some more medium trout and got a redfish as well. Overall, a very slow day and we had to really work for our strikes. Changed baits, techniques and depth but not much was working. Under the difficult water conditions this week, we actually did pretty well and caught the trout and redfish that were in the various locations. I am proud to say that I guided Greg to his first sightfished redfish in West Bay yesterday and I hope he has years of fun stalking the shallow redfish in Tampa/Sarasota. Anyway, it was three fun days of pretty difficult fishing but we managed about 40 or 50 trout of all sizes(1-4#) and some very nice quality redfish. Most fish caught on Gulp! Jerkshads in various colors as well as Berkley Swimmin’ Pogies in Lime Tiger. All plastics confidently rigged with Marsh Works bull red 1/4oz jigheads. No fish worthy of...
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